Month: June 2016

People celebrate the centennial of the first open air concrete swimming pool in Texas at Deep Eddy Pool May 21 with an afternoon of free swimming, birthday cake and live music. 05/21/16 Tom McCarthy Jr. for AMERICAN-STATESMAN

This from the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department:

The 2016 City of Austin swimming pool schedule has been modified. Additional lifeguards have been hired and more are currently being trained. Lifeguards are still needed with pay starting at $13.03 per hour.

In order to maximize limited resources, prioritization will be given for swim lessons, programming, rentals, and open recreational swim times. Some pools are not opening as scheduled.

The following seasonal pools will/have not opened as scheduled. An opening date will be announced in the future.

Civitan

Gillis

Parque Zaragoza

Shipe Wading Pool

Stacy Wading Pool (“Little Stacy”)

Springwoods

The following seasonal pools are operating with modified schedules:

Northwest Pool

Closing daily at 7:30 PM

Patterson Pool

Programming Only: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Daily

Reed Pool

Programming Only: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Daily

Givens Pool

Programming Only: 9 AM – 10:30 AM/7 PM – 8:00 PM Daily

Dove Springs Pool

Programming Only: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Daily

The following seasonal pools will openstarting the week of June 13 in accordance with their regular schedule of 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM:

Govalle

Kennemer

West Austin

Metz (Opened 6/6/16)

The following seasonal pool will open starting the week of June 13 in accordance with its regular schedule of 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM.

Dottie Jordan

The following seasonal pools are open in accordance with their regular schedule of 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM Weekdays; 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM Weekends.

Garrison Pool

Mabel Davis Pool

Walnut Creek Pool

Balcones Pool

Dick Nichols Pool

Rosewood Pool

Ditmar Pool

Murchison Pool

Ramsey Pool

Westenfield Pool

Martin (Opens 6/12)

Montopolis (Opens 6/13)

Shipe (Opens 6/13)

Brentwood (Opens 6/12)

Canyon Vista (Opens 6/12)

The following year-round pools are open:

Bartholomew Pool

Deep Eddy Pool

Stacy Pool (“Big Stacy”)

Barton Springs Pool is currently closed due to recent flooding and will reopen on Monday, June 13.

For more information, and to apply for a lifeguard position, call (512) 974-9330 or go to lifeguardaustin.com.

*Programming includes swim lessons, swim team, and other training programs.

The Hyatt Regency Austin’s cool “Pints & Poses” series continues Monday with a yoga class, a pop-up shop featuring active apparel, and a glass of beer for all participants.

The free monthly series has grown since it launched in April. That’s why organizers are moving it from a room on the hotel’s 17th floor that overlooks Lady Bird Lake to the Texas Ballroom on the second floor. The event is open to Austin residents and hotel guests.

Austin yogi Ferny Barcelo will teach the hour-long, vinyasa flow yoga class. Bring their own yoga mats. Participants get a coupon for a free beer at the hotel’s Marker 10 bar.

FitFit, an Austin-based active apparel company that sells yoga and active wear, will host a pop-up shop in the ballroom from 6 until 8 p.m. Food and drink specials will also be available at Marker 10 after the event.

The class starts at 6:30 p.m. Parking in the hotel’s parking garage is free for participants.

Last year, Andrew Willis slid off his bicycle 130 miles into the Race Across the West, overheated, dehydrated and 11 pounds lighter than when he started the grueling race from California to Colorado.

Emergency room nurses pumped three bags of IV fluids into his veins, and as he slowly revived, he realized he hadn’t properly prepared for the intensity of the heat, which had climbed to 126 degrees.

This year, he thinks he’s ready.

I spoke to Willis yesterday as he drove from Texas to Oceanside, California, where the race will begin at noon next Tuesday. If all goes as planned, he’ll ride 928 miles (that’s 80 miles longer than last year’s route) to Durango, Colorado, crossing deserts and mountains along the way.

“Last year, I was worried about what place I was in in relation to everyone else. I dropped into the desert and went charging off full speed,” he says. “I had some success later in the year, and realized that you have to slow down when it’s hot and you’ve got to take your time with nutrition and drinking. It pays huge dividends later.”

Willis is president of Holland Racing, which puts on the weekly Driveway Race Series.

Andrew Willis dropped out of the 2015 Race Across the West, overheated and dehydrated. Photo by Holly Ammerman

He’d approached the event, put on by the creators of the famous Race Across America, like a road racer, when he needed to train like an endurance athlete.

“These are really races against yourself, and your best is either enough to win, or just finish, or get fifth place. Outside of that, there’s really not a lot you can do about it,” Willis says.

This year Willis adjusted the way he trains. He spends more time riding indoors, on a stationary trainer. He’ll ride seven or eight hours straight, without pause, sometimes saying goodnight to his wife and hopping on the trainer to spin through the night, purposely depriving himself of sleep and acclimating to warm temperatures.

“I’ll crank the heat up to 90 degrees,” he says. “Even though it’s not 100 or 105, you don’t have the air flow you’d have outside. So 90 degrees indoors is a lot hotter than 90 degrees outside, when you’re moving through the air.”

Unlike riding on the road, where cyclists can coast, a stationary trainer requires constant pedaling.

“It has a really good effect on these ultra endurance events, and it’s allowed me to focus on how much I’m eating and drinking,” he says.
He does longer outdoor rides, too, parking his van, stocked with an ice chest full of water and electrolytes, and logging 20-mile laps all day long.

“It’s the only way I can ride outside and practice drinking enough,” he says. “If you’re out in the desert you have to be able to absorb three to four bottles an hour. If I was relying on convenience stores, I’d be spending a ton of time refilling bottles.”

He’s taught his body to take in 60 to 85 ounces of water an hour. (He pees while he’s on the bike, if you must know.)

Last year’s winning time was 65 hours. Willis says he’s trying not to set a goal time, because he doesn’t want to feel like he’s ever behind pace, but race organizers have said he’s a favorite to win.

Participants in the Tyler’s Dam That Cancer event paddle down Lake Austin in this file photo. This year’s event has been postponed due to lake conditions. Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

This from the Flatwater Foundation:

Due to current lake conditions and flood gate activity, The Flatwater Foundation has postponed the 7th Annual Tyler’s Dam That Cancer fundraising event to Monday, July 11, 2016. The event, a 21-mile course from Mansfield Dam on Lake Austin to Tom Miller Dam (Hula Hut) made by 160 participants on stand-up paddleboards, and the welcome-to-shore celebration were originally slated for Monday, June 13.
The safety of all participants and staff is a top priority, and the current waterways pose many hazards for recreational activities. Tyler’s Dam That Cancer will be moved to July 11 to allow flood waters to subside. Despite this shift, The Flatwater Foundation and event participants are eager to continue efforts in training and fundraising leading up to the event.

The hour-long camp, held at 6:45 p.m. at the top of a parking garage next to an apartment complex off of Riverside Drive, reminded me that anytime you try a new workout, you’ve got to overcome a learning curve. Sore muscles, too – and a good heap of humiliation.

I scrambled to keep up, and felt pretty scrawny when I had to modify some of the exercises, which included penguins, squats, rope slinging, leg lifts, burpies, sandbag flinging, crunches and some light weight work. About 25 people, mostly in their 20s or early 30s, participated.

Pros? Close to work. Hour-long session. Lots of Camp Gladiator locations around the city. Good coaching from Matthew Fedor. A good mix of exercises, done at stations set up on the top of the garage. Variety makes me happy.

Cons? I prefer my exercise in the morning, when I’m full of energy and when it’s cooler. The session included a lot of jumping and running, which is hard on a foot with plantar fasciitis. Also, I need more warmup. This one started with the dial at 11. Plus, it took me a few minutes to catch on to each exercise. (My inexperience, not the camp’s fault.) Also, I dropped in at the end of a four-week cycle. I should have gone during Week 1 for a better intro and less muscle shock. Timing is everything.

But that camp fired me up to sample other bootcamps around Austin.

This week, I dropped by a 5:30 a.m. Motiv8 Fitness camp at Dick Nichols Park off of South MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1). It was still dark when I arrived, and the sun rose during the 45-minute session, attended by about a dozen people, mostly women in their 30s and 40s. The workout included lots of planks and core work, plus some short bursts of running, iron crosses, squats, dumbbell lifts and other light weight work.

Pros: Small group. Incorporates yoga, which I need to do more of. Got to watch the sun rise. I like a morning workout. Lots of friendly support from group members and coach Kaolin Young, who sends out weekly emails informing participants of extra activities like the June hydration challenge, which encourages members to drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day.

Cons: Yawn! I’m an early bird, but setting the alarm for 4:45 a.m. (!) felt cruel. I had to make a 25-minute drive from my home in Allandale to get to camp on time. (The camp offers other times and locations, but I was meeting a friend.) The workout only lasted 45 minutes. I prefer an hour.

I’m planning to try other bootcamps as the summer unfolds.

I’m a big believer in mixing it up, in doing things that you’re not used to. It keeps you interested, and reawakens muscles that you may not have used in a while.

Sakora is looking for a permanent home with an active owner who likes to hike, camp and swim. Photo by Chris LeBlanc

You: Outdoorsy and active, able to pour kibble in a dish. A sucker for sweet dogs, especially 37-pound black lab mixes looking for a permanent home. Ideal date involves camping, hiking or swimming, with several four-legged friends.

Her: Amber eyes, glossy fur and an easy grin. Prefers life in a pack. Loves long hikes in the woods, on a leash, with you – and a couple of other dogs.

Sakora needs a home with an owner who has other dogs. Photo by Chris LeBlanc

Amy Gelfand, a cyclist I met a few years ago while bicycling through Colorado, contacted me recently to alert me to a dog she’s fostering for Lucky Lab Rescue and Adoption.

Sakora, a 4-year-old lab mix, needs a home, one with someone who likes to get outside.

Gelfand brought Sakora by my house last weekend. The black pup with a white star on her chest waltzed into my house, ignored my rescue cat Rita, and smiled up at me.

That’s a big turnaround for the once timid dog, who wouldn’t even make eye contact with another person when Gelfand took her in four months ago.

Lots of things have changed for Sakora, actually. She wags her tail now, and walks on a leash with confidence. It all changed when Gelfand took her out on the Brushy Creek Trail, where she saw trees, smelled flowers, felt the wind in her fur and padded through dirt and grass.

“She likes to be in nature,” Gelfand says. “It’s soothing to her. She’s terrific on the trail.”

Gelfand thought someone who reads the Fit City column might make a good match. I hope she’s right.

Sakora was briefly placed with an owner in Houston, but that didn’t work out. That person was gone during the day, and didn’t have any other pets. Sakora got frustrated and tore things up. When the dog returned to Gelfand, her usual honor roll behavior returned.

“She needs other dogs and an owner who can spend a lot of time with her,” Gelfand says.

Sakora has started obedience classes. She’s well-mannered and quiet, and Gelfand envisions her with an owner who would compete with her in agility or take her out on the greenbelt for an afternoon hike. (She sounds like a great dog for a trail runner!)

“She likes to go hiking, the rougher the trail the better,” Gelfand says.

Members of the 2013 Texas 4000 arrive in Alaska. Photo by Aaron Leondar/Texas 4000

After months of preparation, it’s go time for this year’s group of University of Texas students who are pedaling from Austin to Anchorage.

The 67 student cyclists participating in Texas 4000 will roll out of Austin on Friday, ticking off the first miles in their 4,687-mile summer commute to Alaska. The cyclists raise money to fund cancer research and speak to community groups along the way, raising awareness about cancer.

Last week, the non-profit group announced it would award eight grants worth a total of $435,000 to cancer-fighting organizations. The group has raised more than $7 million through its rides and given out $3 million in grants since 2003.

Members of the public will join the riders on Saturday, the first real leg of the 70-day journey, as they ride from Leander to Pillar Bluff Vineyards in Lampasas in the Atlas Ride.

After that, the team will split into three groups. One will head west to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and another will aim for the Rocky Mountains. A third group will cut across the midsection of the country in the Ozarks route. The three groups will merge and ride the last 10 days into Alaska together.

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About the Author

Pam LeBlanc writes about fitness and travel for the Austin American-Statesman. She has worked for the Statesman since 1998 and written her weekly fitness column, Fit City, since 2004.

Pam rides a bicycle to work, swims on a team and runs with her girlfriends. All her hobbies, from scuba diving to horseback riding and snow skiing, involve bulky gear. She lives in Austin with her husband, who is really good at applying bandages and ice packs.